


Gone to Seed

by Wonko



Category: Holby City
Genre: Berena Mashed Potato Ficathon, F/F, King Edward - Freeform, Mashed Potato Ficathon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 11:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14543751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonko/pseuds/Wonko
Summary: It's Bernie's first day back at the hospital after her return from Nairobi. She's hoping for a quiet day. Jinxed it.





	Gone to Seed

The alarm was set for seven o’clock, but Bernie was awake long before that, watching the sky slowly lighten through a gap in the curtains, luxuriating in the unfamiliar feeling of holding Serena in her arms. She’d only been back from Nairobi for a month, and going to sleep and waking up together still felt fresh and new, like a treat she shouldn’t get used to. She’d had to remind herself several times over the last month that this was her life now. The travelling was done, the separation was over. This was it now - she lived in Holby, with Serena. She worked in Holby, with Serena. She was starting on AAU again that very day, co-leading, like in the old pre-trauma unit days. It wasn’t exactly what she’d trained for but, as she’d explained to a tearful Serena one night over FaceTime months ago - she could live without trauma medicine. She could live without Serena too - the last year or so had proved that - but she didn’t want to. So she’d decided she wouldn’t. She’d let her contract run down, declined to renew it, and finally come home.

Serena stirred, nestling more snugly into the curve of Bernie’s neck. Bernie smiled and held her tighter, pressing a kiss to her forehead as she glanced at the clock. There were still fifteen minutes until the alarm would force them out of bed and into the day. Her hand slid experimentally down the line of Serena’s spine and rested just above her backside. She felt Serena’s lips curve into a smile against her skin.

“Just what do you think you’re up to, Major?” she murmured, her voice deep and husky from sleep.

Bernie let her hand slip a little lower. “I would have thought it was fairly obvious,” she replied softly. “Unless I’m losing my touch.”

Serena laughed, the sound coming from deep in her throat and hitting Bernie directly in the libido. “I don’t think you want to be late for your first day back, do you?”

Bernie raised an eyebrow and looked down at Serena. “I’ve got fifteen minutes,” she said. “Twenty-five if we shower together.” She rolled Serena onto her back, hovering over her, messy curls hanging down like a curtain. Serena reached up and ran her fingers through them, pulling them back from her face.

“The last time we showered together, we didn’t exactly save time,” she reminded her.

Bernie smiled, remembering. “Well,” she said, “fifteen minutes it is then.” She grinned, ducking to Serena’s throat and pressing a series of kisses down the raised tendon towards her clavicle. She felt more than heard her lover’s breath catch and she smiled, knowing the argument - such as it was - had been won. “Time me if you like,” she said with a cheeky quirk of her lips, before disappearing under the duvet.

* * * * *

In the end they were slightly late, mostly because Serena insisted on having her own fifteen minutes after Bernie had had hers, and the sharing of the shower had been too much to resist. “Perks of being the boss, darling,” Serena said with a smile as they rode up in the lift together. “No-one’s going to challenge us for sneaking an extra ten minutes in the morning.”

Bernie fiddled with her new security pass, reading her name and job title again and again with a little flutter of nerves unexpectedly dancing in her gut. “I just hope we have a quiet day,” she said. “To ease me back in.”

Before Serena could reply, the lift doors slid open. “I want Serena!” a high-pitched voice screeched. “How many times do I have to say it? Get me Serena Campbell!”

Serena, recognising the voice, groaned. “You jinxed it, darling,” she said, striding onto the ward and finding Donna attempting to placate an irate looking blonde woman who appeared to be about thirty, though Bernie had a feeling that impression was Botox assisted. After a second or two she recognised her. It had been eighteen months or so since she’d seen her, but Liberty Campbell hadn’t changed all that much.

“Liberty,” Serena said with a deep sigh as she approached. “Would you care to tell me why you’re disturbing my ward and haranguing my staff?”

Liberty turned weepy blue eyes towards her. “Serena!” she exclaimed, then blinked. “Wow, you look so…” Her eyes travelled up to her silver hair. “Uhm...different.”

Bernie could almost hear Serena counting to ten inside her head. “Liberty,” she said, her tone clipped. “Do you actually want something, because I’m extremely busy.”

The younger woman began to wring her hands. “It’s Eddie,” she wailed. “I think he...I think he’s got…” She burst into tears and threw herself at Serena, wailing against the lapels of her jacket.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Serena muttered, holding her hands deliberately at her sides. “Liberty, could you please get a hold of yourself and tell me what’s the matter?”

Liberty pulled back, sniffing and wiping her eyes. Her thick mascara had run in dark lines down her cheeks, making her look utterly miserable. Bernie took pity on her.

“Is Edward ill?” she prompted.

Liberty turned to her and nodded plaintively. “I think it’s…” She paused, as if for dramatic effect, then whispered. “Cancer.”

There was a long pause while Bernie, Serena and Donna looked at each other.

“Right,” Serena drawled, unmoved. “Well, his GP is the first step.”

Liberty wailed and threw herself at Serena again. “He won’t go. Please Serena, save him!”

Bernie peeled Liberty off her partner, meeting Serena’s eyes in silent communication.  _ I’ve got this,  _ she seemed to say. Serena nodded gratefully.

“Serena shouldn’t treat him really, because of their former relationship. But I’ll take a look, if you like.”

Liberty turned a damp but grateful gaze on her. “Oh Bernie,” she wailed. “You’re a saint.”

Serena choked back a guffaw as Donna led Bernie and Liberty over to the sideroom, where Edward had evidently been stowed for the time being. “Don’t let your halo catch in the door, darling,” she called.

“I’ll try my best, sweetheart,” she called back.

Liberty glanced towards Serena’s retreating back and then back to Bernie. “It’s so sweet how you two have stayed together all this time,” she said in a syrupy voice.

Bernie blinked. “Uhm...same to you, Liberty,” she said, though ‘sweet’ wasn’t the first word that sprang to mind when she thought of Edward and Liberty Campbell.

Edward was sullen and quiet when she entered the room. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” he insisted, without even saying hello. “She’s mental.”

Liberty drew in an affronted breath. “I’m just worried about you, Teddy Bear!”

Bernie stepped forward before Edward had a chance to respond, trying not to gag at the cutesy nickname. “Hello again, Dr Campbell,” she said, keeping it professional.

“Ms Wolfe,” he acknowledged with poor grace. “Will you please tell my wife that I’m fine so I can go home?”

Bernie looked him over, eyes narrowed, then turned to Liberty. “I assume it’s the scalp issue that has you worried.” Liberty nodded pitifully.

Edward’s last remaining hair had deserted him some years previously. His scalp, the last time Bernie had seen him, had been pale, with the occasional freckle. It was now more of an angry red colour, with a speckling of dark brown, scaly lesions.

“It’s fine,” Edward grunted.

“It’s like sandpaper,” Liberty insisted. “I keep telling him he needs to wear sunblock. It’s skin cancer, isn’t it?”

Bernie took a step closer and examined the affected area. “We’ll need to take a scraping for the lab,” she said. “But I think it’s more likely to be actinic keratosis.” She glanced at Liberty as she explained. “It’s caused by exposure to the sun, and it can lead to skin cancer if left alone. But it’s quite treatable.” She glanced towards Donna. “Could you get me a curette and a specimen pot please Nurse Jackson?”

Donna scurried off to fetch the required implements and Bernie turned to Edward again. “I’ll just need to take a picture as well,” she said. “For the admission paperwork.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and snapped a picture before he had a chance to say anything, then smiled brightly. “If you could just hop into bed, I’ll get started on that sample scraping as soon as Donna gets back. Ah - speak of the devil.”

Donna had returned just at that moment with the specimen pot and curette. “This may be a little uncomfortable,” she warned him.

Edward grunted tetchily. “Just get on with it.”

Bernie forced a tight smile, trying not to think about the interesting surgery she would have been performing in Nairobi if she’d accepted the permanent contract they’d offered her, and stepped forward to rub some antiseptic gel onto her hands and then take a scraping. She could perhaps have been accused of using a little more vehemence than was strictly required, but she didn’t think a jury would convict.

“Right,” she said. “I’ll get that sent down to the lab and be back as soon as we get a result.” She took another squeeze of antiseptic gel. “Make yourself comfortable in the meantime. Donna will be back with the admission paperwork.”

The two of them swiftly took their leave, abandoning Edward to the sniffly ministrations of his child-bride. The door swung shut just as he was saying that he couldn’t believe she’d made him come to this hospital of all places and she was whining about how he needed to be seen by the best. “Nothing but the best for my Teddy Bear!”

Donna mimed sticking her fingers down her throat and Bernie grinned. “Put a rush on this, will you? I think Serena will want him out of here as soon as possible.”

“Sure thing. And Bernie…” Bernie slowed on her path towards the office -  _ her _ office, she corrected herself. Donna smiled. “It’s great to see you again. Ms Campbell’s really missed you. We all have.”

Bernie smiled, a warm flush of comforting familiarity flooding through her chest. Yes, in Nairobi she’d have trauma medicine, new challenges, excitement and adrenaline. But here she had Serena waiting in their office, their jackets hanging on adjacent pegs, their lives complementary and intertwined. 

She wouldn’t swap for anything.

“It’s good to be back,” was all she said.

Donna peeled away, heading to the phone to call a porter to rush the sample down to the lab. Bernie made for the office and was greeted by her partner’s beautiful smiling face when she arrived.

“How is he?” she asked. “A touch of sunburn, perhaps?”

Bernie grinned. “Oh, better than that,” she said, pulling out her phone and finding the picture. “Here.” She perched on the end of her desk, angled towards her partner.

Serena took the phone with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, now that  _ is  _ impressive,” she drawled. “Actinic keratosis?”

Bernie nodded. “I think so.”

Serena was still staring at the picture, a laugh bubbling up in her chest. “He looks like a seed potato,” she managed to force out, before the laughter overtook her.

“A King Edward?” Bernie suggested, before dissolving into honks herself.

After a few moments of helpless laughter, Serena swiped at her eyes. “How do you want to proceed?”

Bernie considered it for a moment. “Well, the affected area is quite large, so...I’m thinking dermabrasion.”

Serena raised an eyebrow. “Painful.”

“But necessary,” Bernie countered. “Care to assist?”

Serena’s eyes sparkled. “Oh darling,” she purred. “You do know how to show a girl a good time.”

Bernie smiled, reaching out to rest her hand over Serena’s for a brief moment. “And don’t you forget it.”

Who needed trauma medicine? She had Serena, she had colleagues who were glad to see her, and later on she was going to go into theatre and use a very scary implement to sand down her partner’s philandering ex-husband’s head.

Life didn’t get much better than this.


End file.
